I have noticed a smell of antifreeze in the cab of my 1998 Ford F-150 truck. 8 cylinder 4.6 litre triton engine. Some friends say the heater core has a leak. The windshield fogs up when running the defroster. How difficult is it to replace the heater core?
View 7 RepliesWhen I turn on my AC. I am getting almost a wet dog smell. Could that be from? Didnt seem to smell like antifreeze. This is new to me....
View 13 RepliesCan sometimes smell antifreeze while driving but have not found any leaks and fluid is full?
View 3 RepliesI can smell antifreeze under the hood, so I took it to be pressure tested. They found no leaks, but I can still smell it. When I add it to the reservoir, it goes down. What can I do ?
View 5 RepliesI'm guessing my heater core is bad as I smell coolant thru the vents. I think the blend door is broke too. I'm guessing the heater core and blend door are in the same area?
View 2 Replies2000 F150 4.6 i have an anti freeze smell and coming from my AC vents, stronger from Passenger side vents. I am losing some anti freeze from the reservoirs, where should i look for the leak?
View 7 RepliesI have an 2007 6.0 turbo diesel with approximately 120,000 miles. I have not done any work on the truck other than change the oil and fuel filters the last 9 years. Lately the check engine light came on and every now and then I can smell antifreeze in the air vents coming out. What may be causing this? I am looking to upgrade for more power and do a few things to the engine to make it bulletproof. I have heard something about and EGR bypass or something that I need to do. Not sure I fully understand it and what does it fix or what it will cost me. I have also heard something about head gaskets and head bolts. I may do the work myself if its not too complicated. What all needs to be done on this engine to make sure it stays strong for years to come. What is the best engine tuner/chip for more power?
View 14 RepliesI am the original owner of the 02 Explorer with 157K miles and recently started smelling antifreeze when I pull into the garage and turn the truck off. I had the water pump replaced less then 10K miles ago. Sometimes the overflow will expel some antifreeze but that has stopped. I checked and there are no leaks, that I can see. Needle on the temperature gauge reads right in the middle. What to check for? Could it be a radiator cap causing too much pressure?
View 2 RepliesSon in law just bought a 2002 Explorer with the 4.0. Looks in pretty good shape and overall I don't think he got a bad deal. However....after a test drive I noticed an antifreeze smell. Got to poking around and it appears to be leaking directly below the thermostat housing and that whole manifold for lack of a better word. It's a bugger to get in there and really see what's leaking...doesn't appear to be any hoses but given the angle can't be really sure. I'm new to the Explorer and the 4.0. Is this anything peculiar to the Explorer/4.0? A known part problem? Something far worse?
View 6 RepliesI have a 1998 F150 with 14300 plus miles. 4.6 engine. I have been smelling antifreeze after a drive long or short. I have looked for leaks but not finding anything.
View 1 RepliesHad numerous problems the last 9 months, and we've replaced the thermostat, water pump, clutch fan, flushed radiator. Last week we thought the heater core had died (air blowing cold, but gauge not indicating any overheating). But it just need flushing, had a clog. Has been kicking out the heat ever since.
What is bothering me though is that the temp gauge always seems to be right at the C, even after driving for a while. Before the van had issues, it stayed right between N and O.
Then this morning, I hear a loud pop, smell horrible burning antifreeze and smoke/steam pouring out from the hood (I managed to park it immediately, had just dropped son off at school). After I'm parked, all the antifreeze puddles underneath.
So hubby comes, and we see that the top radiator hose has blown, with a lovely crack/hole from one side to the other. Now, that hose was old, and probably was a big part of the problem.
We fixed it, and I just drove it again, but I am watching the gauge. And the van is blowing nice, HOT air from the heater. But the gauge is staying right at the C. Used to run between N and O. It is jumpy...not jumping towards hot, but little jumps...below the C, above the C, up to the N, back down to C...it just seems strange to me; it doesn't go past the N at all and spends most of its time at or below the C.
I guess I am wondering if there is any other reason why the hose could've blown this morning besides it being old and worn out....for example, excess heat and pressure building up that for some reason is not registering on the temp gauge? It's making me nervous. Is there something else besides the thermostat that could cause erratic temp gauge or cause gauge not to show me the true engine temp?
So about a week ago I noticed that my 2006 6.0 with 240k miles smelled like antifreeze. I popped the hood and noticed my dega tank was empty. I added coolant to halfway between max and min. A couple days later discovered coolant had dropped to just below min fill. Went to start it this morning and the starter won't engage the flywheel. I hear the relay click and the starter is making a whirling noise. I figure I will try to manually crank it to check if it's the fly wheel. If it's not that I guess I will take the starter to get tested. And if that's not it.. I guess a mechanic.
View 1 RepliesI was warming up my wife's 07 Expy the other day. Yes, I know this is the F150 forum but it's essentially the same drive train and there are more users in this forum. So anyway, it was a cold day so I started the truck to let it warm up for 10 minutes. When we went to leave I could smell anti freeze in the truck. The truck wasn't over heating, there were no puddles underneath it. I opened the hood and there was no obvious leak anywhere. The only thing I noticed was a spritz of droplets all over the intake cover and other black surfaces were it stood out. It was as if the engine had sneezed out some anti freeze, but no visible sign of where it might have come from. It's running fine and hasn't done it again since.
View 3 RepliesI have a 08 f-150 with a 5.4. Started smelling anti-freeze in the cab, with that classic windshield haze of a leaking heater core. I don't have anything on the floor, nor is the engine heating up. Temp gauge is where it always is. This doesn't smell all the time.I just drove 4 1/2 hrs. with no problems. Other than the heater core ?
View 2 RepliesMy windows seem to fog up a lot and there is a hint of an antifreeze smell. It happens almost every time I switch off recycled air. Also, the AC when it first comes on has the same antifreeze like smell. I can run the AC or defrost and the windows clear up and the smell goes away but this doesn't seem normal.
View 7 RepliesI have a 2011 F350 diesel 6.7l. I have had this smell outside the front of the vehicle for months and so I took it finally to a dealer to solve the leak problem. They spent hours on it and eventually found a leak in a tube at the rear of the engine under the intake manifold and supposedly solved my problem. That was 2 weeks ago and I have driven about 300km.(180 miles) but the smell is still noticeable. How long should I wait before it goes away or should I return it to the dealer for further work?
View 6 RepliesWe were driving home yesterday and all of the sudden the car started to over heat and we could smell antifreeze. We turned the ac off and put more water in it. Today we just had to make a short trip somewhere (we were planning on having it looked at first thing Monday morning). The temperature gauge never showed it overheating but as we pulled into our driveway we heard a knocking sound and it just shut off. Iit may just be a leak and it caused the car to over heat??
View 19 RepliesI know if you smell antifreeze when you turn on the heater that is a bad thing. I don't have this issue, but when I walk into the garage after my wife turns off the van I get a whiff of what smells like antifreeze. There isn't a leak that I can find and nothing on the floor the garage out the normal.
2006 Dodge Grand Caravan 80K miles
I recently purchased a 09 Silverado with 73,000K and have periodically noticed a faint Antifreeze smell outside the vehicle near the engine when I park it in the garage. I cannot find any leaks and have not added any coolant. It does not smell inside the truck. Could a pinhole leak do this and not easily show up? Any way to test for this.
View 2 RepliesI have a 1999.5 Jetta 2.0 question:
When I run my defrost with the heat on, I smell antifreeze pretty strongly. I am also having trouble keeping the windshield defogger/defrosted without the heat constantly blowing on it. Signs point to heater core, right? So I tried a bottle of Bars Leaks aluminum radiator stop leak with the metal flakes in it. When I run the heat on the feet or front/face/torso setting, it does not smell like antifreeze (unless it's when it very first starts and it's so slight that I don't notice). When I run the defrost with the heat on, it smells pretty strongly of antifreeze. I see no antifreeze on the passenger side carpet.
This is my second vw I've owned and now I own a 20th ae gti. Just the other day I got out of my car and smelled antifreeze. So I popped the hood and realized there was no coolant in the reservoir.. So I went to my dealership, put some in... well that obviously isn't my problem, because the next day it was gone. Again. This is on sunday so I can't do anything about it. I made an appt to drop it off tonight @ my volkswagen dealer. It's not leaking, not smoking or burning, and the temp gauge isn't moving at all.
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